


Regret

by embroiderama



Category: White Collar
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Peril, Regret
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-19
Updated: 2014-08-19
Packaged: 2018-02-13 21:59:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2166681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/embroiderama/pseuds/embroiderama
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With water below them, concrete above and not much air in between, Neal and Peter talk about regrets.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Regret

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for nieseryjna for the prompt "Neal, regret."

Neal struggled to focus on the lock above him, willing his cold, water-logged fingers to be steady. Peter was next to him, silent but for his breathing and the small sounds of his arms moving as he treaded water. Neal closed his eyes and flexed his fingers to get the blood moving in them, but the situation was starting to seem hopeless.

He and Peter had been kidnapped—together this time, what a novelty—and tied up in the bottom of an old underground storage tank, the only exit a hatch in the ceiling. They were left to drown as the tank slowly filled with water, but Neal slipped the roped binding him and freed Peter, and he told himself that all they had to do was be patient and tread water until they got close enough to the roof hatch to escape. As the hour passed, they had both shed most of their clothes to keep from being weighed down, but Neal had extracted his emergency lock-pick from the lining of his jacket before letting it sink down in the water.

If he had his full lock-pick set, he thought he might have been able to get the hatch open, but a drill would have been better. Or some dynamite. As it was, they had no more than a foot of air left at the top of the tank, and if something didn’t change soon they were going to have no choice but to drown. In the dim, watery light, Neal could see the same grim understanding in Peter’s eyes.

“I’m sorry,” Neal said. “I can’t get it open. I’m sorry.”

“The team is going to get here. Any time now.” Peter sounded less sure of that than he had half an hour before.

“Sure. Right.” Neal felt his breaths speeding up, and he punched at the roof hatch above him, doing nothing but hurt his knuckles.

“Hey, we’ll only use up the oxygen faster if we panic. Come on, uh, tell me something.”

Neal looked over at Peter. “Tell you what?”

“Tell me something you regret.”

“Getting out of bed this morning,” Neal snapped.

“Something real. Come on, Neal.”

 _Breaking into your house_ , Neal thought, but they weren’t quite close enough to death for that revelation. He swallowed hard then nodded. “Trusting my father. I regret that.”

Peter sighed. “Okay. Your turn, ask me a question.”

“Fine. What do you regret?”

“Getting out of bed this morning.” Peter smirked.

Neal opened his mouth to argue when he startled at the sound of someone banging on the roof hatch above him.

“Peter! You in there? Neal?”

“Jones!” Peter bellowed back. “We’re in here. You need to get us out sooner than later.”

“You guys hurt?”

“No, but we’ve got about twenty feet of water below us and ten inches of air above us.”

“We’ve got a drill. We’ll have you out in a few minutes. Might want to move away from the hatch.”

“Okay!” Peter tugged on Neal’s arm. “Come on, let’s give them room to work.”

They awkwardly swam several feet away then continued treading water, their heads now tilted slightly to keep their mouths above water. The team started drilling, and it was too loud to talk, then there was a squeal of metal against metal as the hatch opened and light streamed in. A rope ladder dropped down, and Peter started to move toward it but Neal put a hand on his arm.

“You owe me a truth. What do you regret?”

Peter put his free hand on the ladder and looked at Neal steadily for a moment before answering. “Nothing at all.”


End file.
